Storage Spaces holding drives it should have released

[chillipig]

Hi

Have a strange problem. I was running two 240GB SSDs using the simple option for a pool in storage space. I removed the pool after a while and was going to recreate it, however nether disks were returned to device manager from storage spaces.

I’m running an up-to-date W11 pro 24H2 and all other disks are fine. If I boot with windows PE the 240GB disks are accessible and  also appear very briefly when booting my windows installation but disappear quickly from disk manager / device manager etc.

For some reason Windows still thinks they’re being used for storage spaces but storage spaces only has the option to create new pools yet doesn’t list them either. Also PowerShell no longer lists any pool or virtual disks.

I've also tried just replacing them with a larger SSD but that also gets snatched on boot, presumably because its getting assigned the previous disks drive letter.

Any ideas on how to force these back so the standard disk controller can see them again?

 

Many thanks

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Have you tried booting from a Windows install disc (USB) and running DiskPart from that?  Here are instructions on how to do this, step-by-step:

1. Check the computer and make sure you know how to boot it from a USB flash drive (may be a specific key you have to press when the computer is powered on, or a change to the BIOS (UEFI) firmware settings.
2. If the computer has additional drives installed inside of it, you may wish to open the computer up and disconnect the power or data cables from the other drives (optional step, but it could prevent an accidental drive wipe).
3. Plug the USB flash drive into the computer and power it up using the means to have it boot from the Windows install USB.
   Once the computer finishes booting, it should be at a Windows installation screen.
4. Do not agree to any prompts, copyright licenses, or click on any buttons.
5. Press the Shift + F10 keys together to open a Command Prompt.
6. Run DISKPART to start the command-line disk partitioning utility. The command line prompt will change to DISKPART>.
7. At the DISKPART> prompt, type LIST DISK to get the numbers of all drives installed in the system. Make a note of the numbers assigned to the pooled drives.
8. At the DISKPART> prompt, type SEL DISK n  where n is the number of the first pooled drive.
9. At the DISKPART> prompt, type CLEAN and this will erase the GPT/MBR code from the beginning of the drive. *WARNING:* After performing the clean operation, the drive now be blank/erased, and everything on it will be gone (all files, etc.) If you are planning on selling, recycling or giving away the drive and do not want the data to be recoverable, do a CLEAN ALL command, instead.
10. Repeat steps #8 and #9 for the other drive(s) in the pool.

The drives are now wiped.  You can exit the DiskPart program, shutdown the computer, and boot into Windows as you normally do.  Once you have logged in, try running the Disk Management Tool (filename: DISKMGMT.MSC) MMC snap-in and you should be able to make changes to the two 240GB SSDs as expected.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Edited July 23, 2025 by goretsky
fixed a typo

[chillipig]

On 23/07/2025 at 21:10, goretsky said:

Hello,

Have you tried booting from a Windows install disc (USB) and running DiskPart from that?  Here are instructions on how to do this, step-by-step:

1. Check the computer and make sure you know how to boot it from a USB flash drive (may be a specific key you have to press when the computer is powered on, or a change to the BIOS (UEFI) firmware settings.
2. If the computer has additional drives installed inside of it, you may wish to open the computer up and disconnect the power or data cables from the other drives (optional step, but it could prevent an accidental drive wipe).
3. Plug the USB flash drive into the computer and power it up using the means to have it boot from the Windows install USB.
   Once the computer finishes booting, it should be at a Windows installation screen.
4. Do not agree to any prompts, copyright licenses, or click on any buttons.
5. Press the Shift + F10 keys together to open a Command Prompt.
6. Run DISKPART to start the command-line disk partitioning utility. The command line prompt will change to DISKPART>.
7. At the DISKPART> prompt, type LIST DISK to get the numbers of all drives installed in the system. Make a note of the numbers assigned to the pooled drives.
8. At the DISKPART> prompt, type SEL DISK n  where n is the number of the first pooled drive.
9. At the DISKPART> prompt, type CLEAN and this will erase the GPT/MBR code from the beginning of the drive. *WARNING:* After performing the clean operation, the drive now be blank/erased, and everything on it will be gone (all files, etc.) If you are planning on selling, recycling or giving away the drive and do not want the data to be recoverable, do a CLEAN ALL command, instead.
10. Repeat steps #8 and #9 for the other drive(s) in the pool.

The drives are now wiped.  You can exit the DiskPart program, shutdown the computer, and boot into Windows as you normally do.  Once you have logged in, try running the Disk Management Tool (filename: DISKMGMT.MSC) MMC snap-in and you should be able to make changes to the two 240GB SSDs as expected.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Hi. 

Yes, as I mentioned in the post they appear when booted off winPE and for a few seconds using the native OS but are then grabbed by Storage Spaces and there's no way of accessing them as they’re completely removed from disk management, which is normal when being allocated to storage spaces but storages spaces has lost all record of the pool they were in so there’s no standard method of telling windows to bring them back.

I’ve found storage spaces to be buggy in windows 11, often it will give odd errors as to why different disks can't be used, click create a few times more then it accepts them. 

Thanks for your reply anyhow.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Just to confirm, the drives did not show up in DiskPart when the computer was booted from Windows 11 installation media? 

If that's the case, perhaps removing one drive at a time and then wiping each drive individually would help.

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[chillipig]

On 24/07/2025 at 22:23, goretsky said:

Hello,

Just to confirm, the drives did not show up in DiskPart when the computer was booted from Windows 11 installation media? 

If that's the case, perhaps removing one drive at a time and then wiping each drive individually would help.

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

Yes, they show from Windows media.

But this isn’t a failed disk or partition problem; it’s due to bugs in Microsoft’s Storage Spaces.

 

Basically:

 

-Made a pool of two 240GB SSD’s (storage spaces takes over these drives and they now show as one 480GB drive)

-Removed the pool (both drives should now appear back in disk management as 240 again)

-Neither drives now showing in disk management / device manager.

-No pools showing in storage spaces

-Storage spaces doesn’t list them if I choose to create a new pool.

-What I’m looking for is a way to replicate what windows does when drives are deallocated from storage spaces. I’ve looked for a powershell script but can’t find anything relevant.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

I have used Storage Spaces a bit and not had the problem you are experiencing.  Perhaps it is something unique to the particular hardware configuration?

The only other thing that comes to mind is to unplug each drive, install in another computer running a different operating system or maybe an USB enclosure, and wipe it from there.

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky